Beyers wins judgeship in upset

Attorney Karen Beyers succeeded in her bid to unseat Richard Winegarden as Superior Court Judge in Gwinnett County, the only upset in local elections. With all precincts reporting, Beyers tallied 120,721 votes to Winegarden’s 103,121.

Beyers’ campaign, the only judicial challenge in the county, had painted the judge as disrespectful and arrogant in the courtroom. She said Winegarden has a reputation among attorneys for an overbearing approach to the bench and is noted for his civil case backlog.

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Kimberly Smith/ ksmith@ajc.com

Voters wait in line in Duluth on Tuesday morning to cast their ballots.

• Gwinnett County results

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Winegarden had called the attacks unfair and insisted that during his 25 years on the bench, his interest has been to maintain a decorum in the courtroom that reflected respect for the institution.

Beyers said she only regrets that she didn’t start her campaign earlier.

“I think there was discontent,” Beyers said. “And when I put the word out there and I got some people to identify who the race was between and who it was against, those people came out to help me. And they came out in full force.”

Asked about the tenor of the campaign, Beyers said, “I’m very satisfied with the campaign itself and the things I said during the campaign. When I was saying things during the campaign I kept in mind I might have to go forward and take the bench, so I handled myself appropriately under those circumstances.”

In another key ballot issue, the county’s special purpose local option sales tax passed by a wide margin, garnering 56 percent of the votes. The 1 percent sales tax is expected to generate some $850 million during its five years for special projects, including transportation, libraries, public safety and recreation.

“I was thrilled that the SPLOST passed and that the voters of Gwinnett continue to support this valuable program,” said Raymer Sale, who serves on Gwinnett Citizens for 2009 SPLOST Renewal, a committee of private business people interested in maintaining the tax. “We are thrilled with this.”

This is the seventh time Gwinnett voters have passed a SPLOST since the initiatives were introduced in 1985.

In other Gwinett County races, Commission Chairman Charles Bannister fended off a challenge from Democrat Vincent Passariello by receiving 56 percent of the vote.

Speaking Wednesday morning, Passariello said he was ecstatic with the results because he campaigned on a shoestring budget.

“I feel like a winner,” he said. “There are 160,000 [people] who know my name. The people I met in this campaign were incredible.”

Attempts to reach Bannister were unsuccessful.

Republican District 3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau also held his seat, defeating Democrat Earl Hendon with 59 percent of the vote.

The two will join fellow Republican Shirley Lasseter, who ran unopposed on the all-Republican board.

Two of the three Gwinnett County school board races were decided late.

A close contest in the District 5 Gwinnett County Board of Education election was decided by absentee ballots, with barely 1,200 votes separating the contenders. Long-time board member Louise Radloff, a Republican, posted a narrow win over political newcomer Ravindra Kumar, a Democrat. Radloff received 52 percent of the vote.

Radloff said she was glad the race was finally over. “It’s was an up and down night,” she said. “It was a very difficult race and a very historic race. It brought out people from all walks of life. It created a voting scene that we have probably never seen before in Gwinnett in terms of size.”

Democratic challenger Megan Kline pushed District 1 incumbent Carole Boyce into the night, until the Republican pulled away with a more than 6,000-vote margin by early morning. Boyce garnered 55 percent of the vote.

The other Republican incumbent, District 3 board member Mary Kay Murphy defeated Democrat Jane Hendrix with 58 percent of the vote.

Gwinnett County election officials finished transferring votes from misprinted absentee ballots and sent final results to state officials about 11 a.m. Wednesday, county spokeswoman Heather Sawyer said.

It turned out that workers had to transfer votes from just 14,000 ballots that had printing errors, not the 19,000 initially estimated. But it still took more than half a day longer than initially expected to transfer and count the votes.

About 185 people began the work around 9 a.m. Tuesday. When polls closed at 7 p.m. and election workers allowed some of those workers to leave, the county brought in 60 fresh people to continue counting overnight.

Election officials called in another 15 people Wednesday morning to finish the job, Sawyer said.

The county still has slightly more than 200 provisional ballots uncounted. The status of those ballots, challenged at the precincts, will be determined Friday, said county communications director Joe Sorenson.

In municipal races, Norcross residents must return to the polls to decide two City Council seats. Michelle Crofton will face Ross Kaul in a runoff for the council seat vacated by Jeff Allen. Kaul received 388 votes to Crofton’s 346 in the three-way race. For the council seat vacated by Keith Shewbert, Andrew Hixson drew 384 votes, and will face Jan McKinney, who garnered 263 in the three-way race.

In Lawrenceville, Mayor Rex Millsaps was re-elected. Marie Beiser was elected to Council Post 1, and incumbent Mike Crow won re-election to Post 2.

Residents also passed the Lawrenceville Redevelopment Powers Act, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, 1360-592.

In Loganville, Ray Nunley was re-elected mayor, and incumbent Mark Kiddoo won re-election to the City Council.

Staff writers Michael Pearson, Shane Blatt and D. Aileen Dodd contributed to this report.